So I took the risk and put in my summer seedlings yesterday: 6 tomatoes (2 Italian paste, 2 heirloom slicers, 2 cherries); 5 peppers (a serrano, a poblano, a shishito, and 2 Italian sweets); and an Ichiban eggplant (long, thin, early, prolific).  I may regret this, if we get a sudden frost, but after five years of Portland planting experience, I'm  fairly confident that this is unlikely in our coastal enclave. Springs aren't warm here, but neither do we have the spikes of hot and cold that made growing so challenging in Harmony (along with limited sun-hours, terrible stony soil, and early autumns).

I also put in some basil and parsley, two more lupines (pink and yellow), and a couple of ever-bearing strawberries (autocorrect wants me to call them overbearing strawberries, which I certainly hope is the case).

Today: grass mowing, bed weeding, and more seed sowing: this time, salad greens among the new tomato plants, a row of okra, and cabbage and chard in the garden box. I'm aiming for tiny fresh cabbage heads, not the giant storage type, so we'll see how that goes. This year's seed shortage has forced me to try some experiments.

Otherwise: I'm feeling refreshed by a small vacation from editing, though I'll be starting up again on Monday. Paul has recovered from his vax, and we went on a bike ride together yesterday. I'm getting more skillful (if that's the word) on the hills . . . without a doubt, making both strength and cardio progress--not to mention keeping up with a 23-year-old!--and I'm proud because exercise-for-the-sake-of-exercise has never come naturally or easily to me.

We have to celebrate our little victories. I know you've got a couple of your own.